The GOLDen Project: Article IV, What is wrong with our Money?

This article is intended to shine light on some, little understood, aspects of our current monetary system. I hope to illustrate how elements of our monetary system have impacted life on Earth.

What is money?

Definition: MONEY is a GOOD that acts as a medium of exchange in transactions. Classically, it is said that money acts as a medium of exchange.

So, is it a Good or a medium for Goods? Or Both?

Before the advent of Paper script, money took numerous forms from shells to pottery shards and finally to precious metals. Today most people think of money as Gold or at least “related to the value of Gold”. Unfortunately, that is no longer true. In 1913 the US congress passed a series of laws and amended the Constitution in order to establish a currency which maintained an illusionary relationship to gold but was in fact based on nothing. Richard Nixon issued the death blow to this final illusion of a Gold backed currency, by officially decoupling the dollar from Gold, in 1971. Few people are aware of these truths. Nor are they aware of the implications this new currency has had on our World.

I can not take the time here to give justice to these historical issues. Fortunately, there have been a number of recent documentaries on this subject which aired on Link TV and FSTV. I am sure you can find links to such videos by visiting their websites. A good place to start would be in the original archives at http://www.givemeliberty.org/ . Also, I would be happy to respond individually to questions on this subject or chat on these topics as needed. You can find extensive articles and essays which address these topics on the web.

Try doing a web search on “Fiat currency”

So, what is wrong with today’s currency?

First, today’s currency has no intrinsic value; therefore, its value is completely dependant on the public’s belief that it will be accepted as legal tender.

Second, since today’s currencies are no longer based on gold, Private Banks like the US Federal Reserve and the European Union bankers can print any amount of currency that they want. This money is literally created out of thin air.

Third, Inflation: As more and more currency is printed currency naturally devalues. This is recognized as inflation. Many people incorrectly reason that inflation is due to an increase in the value of products and services. But, in fact, it is because the currency is actually worth less over time.

Finally, Interest: In order to compensate for the natural decline in the value of currency, bankers derived a system whereby they could compensate for this loss. If you are able to hold money in reserve for a long enough time it will accumulate enough interest to offset the cost of inflation. It then follows that by raising the interest rate beyond the rate of inflation you can actually earn wealth. Of all these issues surrounding today’s currency, interest has been the most devastating to the World’s economy and its resources. It is, also, the primary cause of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. This may seem counter-intuitive to most people, after all, interest is the one thing that seems to give value to money. But interest is the largest problem with today’s currency.

Let me explain: After 1913, the international banking cartel became adept at adjusting interest rates in order to keep pace with inflation, thus retaining value in a currency that inherently had no value. One of the earliest experiments in controlling the value of money was a great success and to this day serves as the model for creating vast amounts of wealth for the wealthy elite.

This experiment is known as the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. The cartel found that by encouraging credit loans they could amass enormous amounts of money in the form of interest. Interest in effect produces more money. More money causes more inflation. Inflation causes the currency to reduce in value relative the value of the goods it is meant exchange. Inflation increases until the steady value of goods becomes out of balance with the value of the currency. Money diverted to interest bearing processes causes a blockage in the flow of currency, inflation and a stagnated economy. Interest rates on loans far exceed the natural devaluation rate of the currency itself and thus accelerate the inflation rate. In this way only the bankers and investors reap the profits from an inflating economy. Holding money disrupts the flow of currency back to the lowest levels of the economy and concentrates it at the top, resulting in a direct transfer of wealth from the poor to the already wealthy.

Unchecked, the economy ultimately crashes. Thus, causing the poor to suffer as their remaining assets are transferred to the wealthy investors. Interest never benefits the poor. The wealthy, on the other hand, are never negatively impacted by neither the boom or bust economy. As long as the Banking cartels are allowed to create, manipulate and control the value of our currency the chasm created between rich and poor will continue to deepen.

In the intervening years between the Great Depression and today, the boom and bust cycle has been used countless times in all corners of the world. This is especially true in the western hemisphere and Southeast Asia where International Banks and Corporations used it to devastate local stable economies, indenture and displace native populations and acquire the natural resources of numerous countries.

Top economists working for the Banking cartel, like Alan Greenspan, became masters of economic mumbo-jumbo as they adjusted and manipulated interest rates to create and control small but steady cycles of boom and bust, thus maintaining a steady flow of wealth up the money chain.

These abuses of money are devastating but there is still one more, even more insidious impact of interest on our current monetary system. INTEREST encourages the acquisition of money itself, thus imparting a unique quality to money that is completely contrary to the laws of Nature. Interest has allowed money to move from a mere exchange medium for goods and services to becoming a commodity itself. In fact it is the most desirable commodity on Earth. In my last article (Re-defining Profit for the New Age), the definition of Profit directly related Profit to Money. In fact, Money, it self, is worth more than any other product or service, because every other product or service declines in value while accumulated money increases in value over time. Think about this for a moment. This is why corporations would rather turn a stand of trees into lumber, exchange the lumber for cash and then grow the money through Interest based investments, than hold on to the trees as a future resource. Once the lumber is sold for cash even the lumber becomes expendable. Trees or lumber naturally decay over time but once sold, who cares? The money grows in value faster than trees do. Plus, the trees and lumber are subject to loss, (insects, storms, forest fires, etc.) where the money is not. Therefore, it is much more advantageous to the corporation to immediately cut down the trees and convert them to cash. It is simple economics. This is only made possible by the manipulation of Interest. And it is the driving force behind the destruction and pollution of our planet. Our credit card economy is the virus that is killing our planet. In this light, money in its purest form is not evil, but the application of Interest makes it so.

What is the solution?

Just as we redefined Profit we must also redefine money.
We must redefine the incentives behind money.
And, we must redesign the system under which money operates.

I will offer these solutions as we discuss “Re-defining Money” in my next Article.

May wisdom and knowledge flow, as you reach for understanding…

Namaste
Scott